Even for the always smiling, joking Timofey Mozgov, last season became a drag. He wanted to play and thought he was headed toward more playing time, yet down the stretch he was forced to accept that his view of most Nuggets games would be from the bench.

Mozgov got swept up in a numbers game at center. Kosta Koufos was the starter. JaVale McGee got the backup center minutes. Mozgov became the odd man out. He got playing time only after injuries or foul trouble, or if there was an unusual matchup against a team with multiple 7-footers.

He played in only 41 games, averaging just 8.9 minutes.

It was frustrating enough to drive any player out of town. As a restricted free agent, Mozgov could have sought out another NBA team and pushed the Nuggets not to match any other offer he received. Instead, he ended up right back in Denver, signing a three-year, $14 million contract in July.

First-year Nuggets coach Brian Shaw and general manager Tim Connelly had to sell him on coming back.

"Before I signed, I talked with Coach (Shaw)," Mozgov said. "He said how he wants to play; he said how important big guys are in the paint. We've got a new coach, new GM, we got new players, so it's kind of a new team with a new version of the game."

And that version involves Mozgov getting major minutes.

The Nuggets traded Koufos, in part with an eye toward carving out a bigger role for Mozgov as the top backup behind McGee. Through four preseason games, Mozgov has averaged 15.3 minutes per game and leads the Nuggets in blocked shots with an average of 2.5.

Already, it's been a welcome change for Mozgov.

"You feel better on the court," he said. "You start to understand your teammates better. I like it."

Shaw has been pleased with Mozgov's progress.

"I like what I've seen," Shaw said. "I remember him more so when he was in New York (with the Knicks) and he was getting some run in New York. He's a big, physical presence inside. He's picked up our defensive scheme in terms of our bigs better than any of our bigs have, being in the right place, making the right plays. The first game against the Lakers he had five blocked shots just from being in the right place.

"Offensively, he has a nice touch out to about 15 feet. He always gets good position inside. Now it's just the guys having confidence in him that when they throw him the ball he's going to catch it and make the right decisions."

Footnotes. The Nuggets waived guard Kyle Fogg and forward Reginald Becton-Buckner on Wednesday. That leaves them with 16 players, including training camp signee Damion James. ... The team didn't practice, with Shaw resting the players after back-to-back games.

Not all kids who play baseball are uniformed with fancy script across their chests, traveling to $1,000 instructional camps and drilled how to properly hit the cut-off man. Some kids just play to play.